


Artemis

by crediniaeth



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 500-1000 words, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-01
Updated: 2006-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 23:46:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crediniaeth/pseuds/crediniaeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam dreams of many things. Of Jess. Of Lawrence. Of things that were that can never be again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Artemis

**Author's Note:**

> No spoilers, brief mention of pilot episode and "The Journey Home".

Sam dreams.

Sam dreams of many things. Of Jess. Of Lawrence. Of things that were that can never be again.

The dreams are slowly changing. Now, Sam dreams of trees. Of moss. Of mist and salty air. Sam dreams of a girl in white, not a Woman, a girl. She walks through the trees, the moss, the mist and salty air, until the forest hides her from view.

It’s a dream that Sam can easily ignore, but only for a time.

-

Dean thinks it’s the bayou, once Sam lets it slip. Sam disagrees. _Not warm enough_, he knows deep down. _Besides, the girl was pale as a ghost_. Not enough sun to color her skin.

So they search. Through atlases. Through maps. Through chapter and verse. It’s when they go north and west and over the mountains, just before the sea, that they find what Sam saw. The trees. The moss. The mist and the smell of the salt lingering in the air. But no girl.

-

_But she was there_, Sam says to the mist. _Right over there, clear as day_. The mist doesn’t answer back. It keeps its secrets, keeps them close.

-

Dean drives.

Dean drives to Aberdeen, to Port Angeles, through the small fishing towns that face the ocean and the Strait. Dean picks up the trail in Olympia, in the shadow of the Capitol. A daughter lost in the trees and the moss.

More driving. Around the bend and up the Sound. _The ferry would have been faster_, Sam comments. _There’s no freedom in ferries_, Dean replies.

-

Two distraught parents. Another scam for information. Another house by the sea. A daughter raised by the sea, but at home in the forests and hills. A daughter lost. A promise made.

-

Sam stares.

Sam stares out into the ocean and watches the breakers in the distance. He compares the boulders to the grains of California, he contrasts the waist-high waves to the waters of another life. A life that was and can never be again.

And then she’s there, standing beside him.

I love the ocean, she says to the waves. The waves answer back with a crash.

_How can I help you_? Sam asks in earnest.

She doesn’t respond right away, only turns back to look at the cliffs.

It wasn’t my time. They were lost. They didn’t want me. I wasn’t what they needed. I was available.

_Where are you?_

It wasn’t my time.

_Who did this to you?_

They didn’t want me.

_Where do we look?_

I wasn’t what they needed.

_ Diana. _

She turns.

My parents, they grieve.

_Yes, they do. I promised them I would bring you home. Help me._

She points.

Beyond where the trails end. Curtain of green. Arrows. Wood. Knives. Amber—

It was only a second. A shout from Dean from the cliff. A turn of the head. A reply. And she was gone.

-

They return to the trees, the moss, the mist, and the salt. They see themselves flanked by deer of all sizes, on all sides.

As much as the forest can hide, the forest can also reveal.

They follow the unbeaten paths. Beyond the trails set out by the rangers. The deer dwindle in number until one remains – their guide for the rest of the journey. It points them straight and true to the curtain of green, the arrows, the wood, the weapons and the precious stones.

_She was a sacrifice_, Sam spoke to the quiet. _An innocent in the wrong place at the wrong time_. The wind replied with a sorrowful moan, as if the forest grieved for not taking care of its huntress daughter now long since cold.

_We need to find the bastards that did this to her_, Dean whispers.

There’s no need, she said, standing next to Sam. They did it to protect this place.

_But they’ll do it again._

Not in your lifetime. It’s all right. Take me home.

_We’ll come back. You got us into this, and we won’t let it die._

-

They did take her home. Distress turned to grief. Sadness to mourning. She was home, where she wanted to be, home by the sea, with her forest sentinels keeping guard over their protector.

**Author's Note:**

> From [Encyclopedia Mythica](http://www.pantheon.org/):  
> __**Artemis (Greek)**  
> Artemis is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility. Artemis was one of the Olympians and a virgin goddess. Her main vocation was to roam mountain forests and uncultivated land with her nymphs in attendance hunting for lions, panthers, hinds and stags. Contradictory to the latter, she helped in protecting and seeing to their well-being, also their safety and reproduction. She was armed with a bow and arrows which were made by Hephaestus and the Cyclopes.
> 
> Diana is the Roman representation of Artemis - _Under Greek influence she was equated with Artemis and assumed many of her aspects. She is portrayed as a huntress accompanied by a deer._


End file.
